


Unofficially Official

by teacup_tyrant



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26002063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacup_tyrant/pseuds/teacup_tyrant
Summary: In which Kaz serves Inej some papers. All in the legal sense, of course.
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 98





	Unofficially Official

In ten years, many things had changed, but many things had stayed the same. 

Kaz Brekker still kept one bottled ship on the shelf of Per Haskell's office as a reminder, and Inej Ghafa still reached for her trusted knife Sankta Alina when she was in a pinch. 

Inej had become a notorious presence on the seas and slavers feared the day that her small, quick ship appeared in their long glasses behind them on the horizon. She'd made a name for herself, and yet was still drawn back to berth 22 of fifth harbor like a thirsty desert cat seeking an oasis. 

It wasn't surprising, in that regard, that she'd find herself in the office of the Dreg's infamous boss within minutes of her arrival from a long journey at sea. It was the first place she check for Kaz, though he was often already lurking the dark corners of the Barrel. On this bright spring day, Inej was taken aback to see him still holed up in his office, buried in paperwork. He hardly looked up when she let herself in, as if expecting her. But soon he set aside the document he had been pouring over, and pushed another sheet of paper towards her when she dropped into the chair across from him. 

“What's this?”

“Read it,” Kaz suggested simply, and leaned back to watch her.

"This certifies that Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa were joined together on-" Inej's breath caught and she looked up quickly. “Is this what I think it is?”

Kaz nodded slowly, only now betraying some of his nervousness. “I thought... maybe you'd like something more official.”

Official? Inej glanced down at the paper again. The witness and judge had already signed. Strange. “But how did... how did you even get this?”

Kaz clasped his hands together atop the desk to stop their shaking. He shrugged. “I had Spect draw it up.”

“You had... Spect...” Realization dawned on Inej and she doubled over in laughter. “Spect wrote this? You mean he forged it? That hardly counts as official!”

“It will be if it gets signed and filed away at the Staadhall. No one will even notice it's there once it's alphabetized with all the others in some dusty drawer,” Kaz said, disgruntled at her outburst. This wasn't turning out as he planned at all.

“So this is how you would ask me? Aren't you at least supposed to get down on one knee?”

“Bad leg, you know,” Kaz quipped. “My knee wouldn't thank you for it, but I'll do it if that's what you really want.”

Another giggle burst free from Inej.

“Fine,” Kaz snapped, fully annoyed with Inej's reaction. He reached out to snatch the document back. “Never mind. I'll have Spect burn it.”

Inej scooted back in her chair, clutching the paper to her chest and dodging his reach. “No! I didn't say that. I didn't say I didn't want to.”

Kaz stilled. 

Inej looked down at the paper again, with its looped calligraphy and official-looking seal. 

“Is this going to make things... different?”

Inej valued her freedom in its many forms. She had escaped the two contacts that had tied her down: the Menagerie and the Dregs. Her freedom came in the form of her ship and her crew. Kaz himself had given it to her. He knew how important it was. Inej would come and go from Ketterdam as she pleased and Kaz never dictated to her. They missed each other when they were apart, but they weren't blinded enough to realize that there were bigger things in the world than themselves.

“Of course not.” Kaz glanced away for a moment. “You can burn it yourself when you get sick of me.”

“I'll never be sick of you,” Inej said softly. “I haven't been sick of you yet.”

“No? Not even that one time when we got the dirt on that fishmonger but you ended up in a barrel of spoiled cod because I told you their roof beams were sturdy when they weren't?”

Inej's eyes narrowed and she shuddered in remembrance. Her hair had smelled like fish for days. “Well. Maybe once.”

“What the time Pim was drunk and shot you in the leg on accident trying to shoot a bottle I dared him to hit?”

“Well-”

“Or when-”

“You're really not making a very convincing case for yourself, you know,” Inej interrupted.

“Just making sure you know what you're getting into.”

“I knew what I was getting into the moment I set foot in the Slat,” she countered. “I knew when you ignored me for two days on the Ferolind. I knew when I saw my parents step onto that dock in Ketterdamn all those years ago. And I know that despite whatever you may think about yourself, I know that you're not truly as horrible of a bastard as you think you are.”

And with that, she reached across the table and seized Kaz's glass fountain pen. After her signature was complete, she rotated the document and pushed it back towards Kaz. Her fingers brushed against his when she handed over the pen. Years earlier, the contact would have sent a shudder through him and thrown him into a panic. But ten years of practice made the brush of skin feel natural, even welcome. He stared at her signature for a moment, then added his own next to it. When he looked up, Inej was ginning at him. 

“I hope you know what YOU'VE gotten yourself into, Mr. Brekker.”

**Author's Note:**

> Was this inspired by the scene at the end of Matilda when she's like, “hold on, I have adoption paper right here...”? Maybe. Because of course Kaz has had a marriage certificate sitting on his desk since forever.
> 
> Sorry I've been sitting on this blurb of a story for literal years! :]


End file.
